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Out of nothing but curiousity I went and looked at this ... "car".
There is not a snow balls chance in hell I'd buy it -
If I'm out buying a car - I want one that will get up and go and go and go. If I have to put gas in it - fine. But, I want a car with power and ride comfort. And the Insight has neither.
As for an electric car? I won't spend $40,000 on one to only be able to drive it a 100 miles between charge ups! That is plumb stupid! I do lots of cross country driving - and will commonly do 600 / 700 miles a day.
Surprisingly, my Dad said he might look at one to replace his mid-nineties Lincoln Town Car. Quite a change, but the car before that was an '86 Accord, so he may be cool with it. It'll be interesting to get his take on it if he does give one a test drive.
Out of nothing but curiousity I went and looked at this ... "car".
There is not a snow balls chance in hell I'd buy it -
If I'm out buying a car - I want one that will get up and go and go and go. If I have to put gas in it - fine. But, I want a car with power and ride comfort. And the Insight has neither.
As for an electric car? I won't spend $40,000 on one to only be able to drive it a 100 miles between charge ups! That is plumb stupid! I do lots of cross country driving - and will commonly do 600 / 700 miles a day.
Good luck when gas is $5., $6, $7, $8, /gal in the not too distant future.
What makes this trip possible is "thinking ahead". If you can't do that you probably shouldn't be allowed to drive a car. Any car.
A very interesting thread. More out of fear for the state of the educational system than any intelligent discourse.
How can one "Think Ahead" their way out of a 6 hour recharge? If you cars range is 150 miles, even "Thinking Ahead" you would be stuck in a truck stop waiting for the car to recharge for 6 hours (if you can even find that now). At a conservative 60 miles an hour, that's equivalent to driving 17.5 miles an hour in 8.5 hours. So in a real example I moved 1,400 miles, that would take about 80 hours of driving and recharging (taking meals and sleep during the recharge times) which I did in my car in about 24 hours (we shifted drivers, the car didn't care how long we went)...nearly 3.5 times longer.
Want intelligent discourse, figure out how to do high school algebra before fearing about the state of the educational system
There are certainly technologies that look good that are coming up...high speed charging, switching batteries at stations, high speed capacitors.
But that is a false argument. The electric car is not meant to replace ALL cars. It's not meant to be a distance car. The average US commute is 33 miles, round-trip, per day. Add errands and you are recharging the car every other day at most. Certainly there are people for whom that doesn't work, but there are huge numbers of drivers for whom it does.
I have an SUV that I use as a tow vehicle - when we moved, we hauled loads of goods, when we built the house we hauled building materials and landscape materials. Now that those uses are behind me, we're probably going to sell it and buy something smaller because we can borrow a neighbor's (just as he borrows our Kubota tractor) or rent as we need it.
Rejecting a temporary solution because it isn't one-size fits all is very sort-sighted. Certainly electric cars have a number of problems, greatest of which is that the power grid in many places is already in trouble, and even with night, off-peak charging a large number of electric cars might strain that too far.
But the state of our electric grid is a national disgrace anyway and something the stimulus is targeted to fix.
But that is a false argument. The electric car is not meant to replace ALL cars. It's not meant to be a distance car. The average US commute is 33 miles, round-trip, per day. Add errands and you are recharging the car every other day at most. Certainly there are people for whom that doesn't work, but there are huge numbers of drivers for whom it does.
Hummm, yes and no really...most of what people drive is to and from work.
On the other hand if you are paying $25k for a car with a choice of either gas or electric, would you want that limitation that you cannot take long trips with it and takes 3 times longer to move? To have a hauling/long distance car a family would be forced to own two vehicles (one for short trips and one for long, of course many have 2 anyways) or rent one...is that less wasteful then having one car, to cut consumption, that can do both? Even if one takes the electric car on long trips, I have not seen a filling station with a place to plug in.
It just seems to me like things are not set for electric cars just yet, things look good for the future of it but I'm not going to sell my car and buy one till things are set. I'm not really going to take the frustration of pioneering it, let the early adopters pay the premium and work out the bugs.
I'd definitely agree that a single-car household is not going to choose an electric car. On the other hand, here is a study on car-owning by US households:
I'd definitely agree that a single-car household is not going to choose an electric car. On the other hand, here is a study on car-owning by US households:
Average number of cars per US household: 2.28
% of households with 1 car - 34 %
% of households with 2 cars - 31%
% of households with 3+ cars - 35%
Me and my boyfriend each have cars, and we use mine far more often than his. When he gets a new car (in the next 1-5 years, as budget permits) he wants to get an electric car. We carpool to work which is about 40 miles round trip and the only grocery store in town is less than 5 miles away . We can always take my car on longer trips, and his car for work and errands.
Oh, and I ADORE Jeremy Clarkson, although I've had a crush on Richard Hammond for many years
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. We can always take my car on longer trips, and his car for work and errands. 
